So this blog post may have some similarities to the last, but this is a journal entry I wrote at about 10:30 p.m. on New Years Eve (or 2:30 p.m. for those of you back home…).
What a year. Oh what a year. Even so, I can’t imagine what I will be thinking and feeling at this point next year. Zambia has been the goal – the focus – the destination – for so long and now… we’re here. So now what? What becomes the goal? The next stage? The destination for our lives? We’ve focused so much on getting here, and now that we’re here, what does God have planned for us?
It’s been three weeks since we arrived in Zambia, and have been in a state of limbo – staying in Lusaka until we move to Solwezi January 5. It’s been frustrating waiting, but we’ll probably find ourselves very grateful for this opportunity to rest – to throw our routines and schedules and everything we’re used to out the window so that when we get to Solwezi, we go with a clean slate, no expectations, and the energy we need to jump into a completely new life.
Our definitions and contexts have changed. There is a new rich and a new poor; a new clean and a new dirty. New definitions of beauty; new definitions of time. New smells, new sounds, new foods, new systems of measurement and money and processes. Our seasons have flipped; our wardrobes diminished and changed; our friendships moved and stretched. God is so good, and so mysterious. He brought us here and turned our worlds upside down and we are so excited, scared, and everything else to see what happens next.
Seriously. We start language training soon and all the while start life here. We will be making friends (hopefully), and setting up life. We’re no longer working toward getting to Zambia. No longer just buying the necessities knowing we’re one day moving overseas. This is real. This is life now. Everything we know is changing. We’re going to be changing. And we probably couldn’t do it except for one thing. God’s love is not changing. Christ’s love – His death and resurrection – and salvation through Him – is not changing. The need for a Savior throughout the world is not changing.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" - Hebrews 13:8
We are no longer going to be focused on getting to Zambia. Now we have to open our eyes, our hearts, and our mouths to share the good news of Christ in a context so different than ever before.
Thank you God or this opportunity – for this new adventure and new life. I can’t wait to see what happens in 2011.
1 comment:
The Valley of Vision
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley.
Post a Comment